Michele Lisenbury Christensen on her yoga practice

Registration is open for what will be the last session of my 30 Days of Yoga courses. As I retire these courses, I’ve asked a few friends to join me in reflecting on why yoga and meditation are so crucial to their lives.

My practice?

It used to mean achievement. It was something that the athlete, the pusher, the maker-of-happenings in me would … well, make happen.

I ticked it off just like everything else on the list.

And as my practice deepened … That stopped working for me.

My practice became something I resisted.

I loved yoga … I loved the traditions and the teachings. I loved the way I felt in my body – energized AND serene – when I stepped off the mat. I loved the moments in the practice where something would rush through me like a bird had been released inside me. And yet.

I was alone on the mat in a way I wasn’t alone anywhere else.

Once I started to open doors inside myself through yoga, my practice meant walking through them. And that was so very uncomfortable that I resisted my practice as much as I yearned for it.

Practice, then, meant push-pull. It meant resistance and will. It meant weeks of consistency followed by weeks of avoidance. It meant grief.

I continued to lean into the tradition and the evidence it provides that yoking effort and surrender together can heal. I trusted. I practiced when I was able. And as I move into my 16th year of practice, practice means something different to me now.

As I’ve leaned into yoga itself as a practice, I’ve started to experience it as something that carries me, rather than something I have to generate.

Yoga practice is no longer MY PRACTICE that I succeed at or fail at, check off or procrastinate, “achieve” ambitious poses in or am “still working on” particular feats of strength, focus, balance, and flexibility. I am not working on yoga. Yoga is working on me. I am not practicing yoga. Yoga practice is my guide, my muse, my freedom.

Meet Michele.

Michele Lisenbury Christensen instigates everyday sensuality using yoga, brain science, and candid tales of personal trials and triumphs. In the past 15 years, she’s co-crafted a playful smokin’ 13+ year marriage, had two happy kids, and been a trusted advisor to more than 2000 couples, business owners, and high-level corporate leaders around the world.